Key Questions and Concepts

20-1 What are the causes and effects of water pollution?

A.Water is polluted by infectious bacteria, inorganic and organic chemicals, and
excess heat. Water pollution is any chemical, biological, or physical change in
water quality that has a harmful effect on living organisms.
SCIENCE FOCUS: Scientists monitor water quality by using bacterial counts,
chemical analysis, and indicator organisms.
B.Water pollution can come from a single source or from a variety of dispersed
sources. Point sources discharge pollutants at specific locations through drain
pipes, ditches, or sewer lines into bodies of surface water. Non-point sources are
scattered and diffuse and can’t be traced to any single site of discharge.
C.The leading sources of water pollution are agriculture, industries, and mining.
D.Common diseases are transmitted to humans through contaminated drinking water
(Table 21-2). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3.2 million
people, most of whom are children, die prematurely every year from infections
diseases spread by contaminated water or lack of water for adequate hygiene.

20-2 What are the major water pollution problems in streams and lakes?
A. Streams can recover from moderate levels of degradable water pollutants if the
flows are not reduced.
A combination of dilution and biodegradation can allow recovery of stream
pollution if they are not overloaded, or have reduced flow due to damming,
agricultural diversion, or drought.

B.Most developed countries have reduced point source pollution, but toxic
chemicals and pollution from non-point sources are still problems. CASE
STUDY: The U.S. Experience with reducing point source pollution.
CASE STUDY: Ganges River. Stream pollution in most developing countries is a
serious and growing problem. Half of the world’s 500 major rivers are heavily
polluted and most of them run through developing countries where waste
treatment is minimal or nonexistent.
C. Religious beliefs, cultural traditions, poverty, little economic development, and a
large population interact to cause severe pollution of the Ganges River in India.
D. Lakes have little flow and so are less effective at diluting pollutants that enter
them.
E. Human activities can overload lakes with plant nutrients that reduce dissolved
oxygen and kill some aquatic species. Nutrient enrichment of lakes from runoff is
called eutrophication.
CORE CASE STUDY: An example of lake recovery is Lake Washington in
Seattle, Washington.

20-3 What are the major pollution problems affecting groundwater and other
drinking water sources?
A. Groundwater is vulnerable to contamination because it can’t effectively cleanse
itself and dilute or disperse pollutants. Contaminated water in the aquifer will
 slowly flow along and create a plume of contaminated water. It can take hundreds
of years to cleanse degradable wastes; nondegradable wastes are there
permanently.
B. The extent of groundwater contamination is generally unknown since there has
been little tracking and testing done on aquifers.
C. Prevention is the most effective and affordable way to protect groundwater from
pollutants.
D. Groundwater pollution can include human pollutants and natural
pollutants such as Arsenic.
CASE STUDY: Arsenic in Groundwater.

20-4 What are the major water pollution problems affecting oceans?
A. Oceans can disperse and break down large quantities of degradable pollutants if
they are not overloaded.
B.Pollution of coastal water near heavily populated areas is a serious problem.
About 40% of the world’s population lives on or within 62 miles of the coast, and
this puts a tremendous burden on the wetlands, estuaries, coral reefs and
mangrove swamps found along the coast.
C. Pollutants from six states contaminate the shallow Chesapeake Bay estuary, but
cooperative efforts have reduced some of the pollution inputs. Introduction of
disease-resistant oysters into the Chesapeake Bay could greatly reduce water
pollution because oysters filter algae and silt from water.
D. Parts of the world’s oceans are dump sites for a variety of toxic materials, sewage,
and garbage from ships. Dumping industrial wastes off U.S. coasts has stopped,
but large quantities of dredge spoils are still legally dumped at 110 sites in the
Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coasts of the U.S.
E. Most ocean pollution comes from human activities on land such as changing and
dumping motor oil.
F. Oil pollution can have a number of harmful ecological and economic effects, but
most disappear within 3 to15 years. Only about 15% of the oil spilled can be
recovered with current techniques, so prevention is the best strategy.
G. Preventing or reducing pollution from the land and from streams is the key to
protecting the oceans.

30-5 How can we best deal with water pollution?

A. Reduce non-point pollution by preventing it from reaching bodies of surface
water.
B. Most developing countries do not have laws to set water pollution standards.
C. Septic tanks and various levels of sewage treatment can reduce point-source water
pollution.
D. Sewage sludge can be used as a soil conditioner, but may cause health problems if
it contains infectious bacteria or toxic chemicals.
E. Preventing toxic chemicals from reaching sewage treatment plants would
eliminate these from sludge and water that is discharged.
F. Natural and artificial wetlands and other ecological systems can be used to treat
sewage.
G. Water pollution laws have significantly improved water quality in many U.S.
streams and lakes, but more needs to be done particularly for non-point source
pollution sources.
H. Drinking water quality.
1. Centralized water treatment plants can provide safe drinking water for city
dwellers. Water is settled, filtered, and chlorinated to meet government
drinking standards.
2. The U.S. is upgrading water purification and delivery systems. This is such a
vast system that it is hard to secure, but also difficult to adequately poison.
Both chemical and biological indicators are being developed to indicate a
contamination problem.
3. Several simple, inexpensive ways for individuals and villages to purify
drinking water have been developed. Exposure of contaminated water to
intense sunlight in a clear plastic bottle is one method. It takes as little as three
hours to kill bacteria in the sun and heat.
4. About 54 countries have standards for safe drinking water.
5. Some bottled water is not as pure as tap water and costs much more.